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Chapter Text

"Every time I see Myrtenaster now… I can't help but be impressed by the craftsmanship that went into it," Winter murmured quietly as she swung Weiss' weapon around elegantly, utterly smooth and professional with every motion despite her lack of formal training with polearms. It felt weighty and solid in her hands- not too heavy, impeccably balanced, and with style and elegance oozing from every hand carved engraving embedded in the reinforced steel of its construction. "Truly, Ruby has outdone herself time and time again. Have you had any more upgrades added to it?"

"Ah- no. Not yet. I haven't really had time to ask for new ones with the tournament going on," Weiss answered a bit shyly, holding her hands behind her back as she stood there and watched her sister run her fingers all over her weapon- her baby . Truly, she'd never felt a connection to it before Ruby changed it so drastically, but after cleaning and maintaining it for so long, after she'd watched and aided Ruby through every step of the process, infused her Aura through every last nook and cranny and mechanism within the depths of her weapon… she really didn't want her sister to keep using it as though she were going through the motions of a rifle parade drill. She wasn't jealous- really! She just… it was her baby and it deserved to be wielded with the elegant lethality that she'd learned and taught herself through months and months of training and practice with Pyrrha and Ruby's help! "I think it's at a level where I can't upgrade it more beyond simple material changes. Ruby already said that the Dust channeling mechanisms and properties are as efficient and powerful as she could make them within Myrtenaster's existing form factor, and so far nothing about it has been at all off or out of spec. Given maintenance and regular replacement of worn down parts, I think that Myrtenaster is as good as it can get… unlike Crescent Rose, which is frankly a monstrosity of a gun by now and should be illegal to fire within two hundred meters of a civilian."

"... It is unfortunately powerful," Winter nodded, collapsing Myrtenaster back down to its rapier form and doing an artful twirl with it before passing the weapon back to Weiss. She paused for a moment, taking in the late afternoon sun shining through the window and humming to herself quietly. There were a number of things going on around campus it seemed- Raven Branwen's return to the fold of the Anti-Salem Coalition… or… whatever their little conspiracy was called. Ruby and Yang's visit to Professor Goodwitch. Team CMNE setting things on fire again. Team CFVY chasing them around… her and Weiss' meeting… Blake peering through the window- wait what? "... Weiss why is your girlfriend peeking through the window like a pervert?"

"Huh- wait what? Blake? Wh- Blake! Get over here!" Weiss cried, rushing to the window and throwing it open as Blake just stepped back casually, snickering a little as Weiss reached through and grabbed her by the lapels. "Why were you spying on Winter and I?"

"Sorry, sorry- I didn't mean to," Blake chuckled, letting Weiss drag her through the window with a little hop and skip to boost herself over. "I was coming to get you- I was thinking of making a trip into town while Yang and Ruby were with Professor Goodwitch, get some takeout for dinner? Y'know, since the festival grounds are so crowded, the places in town won't have as many people."

"... What kind of takeout? Because if it's South Mistralian I'm definitely not getting the medium spicy options again," Weiss deadpanned, crossing her arms and narrowing her eyes at Blake. "I am not falling for your act a second time."

"... I mean, it really wasn't that spicy to me, but I grew up eating a lot of spicy food," Blake shrugged, reaching out to pat Weiss' head gently before leaning down and giving her a quick kiss on the cheek. "But yeah, I was thinking East Mistrali, for the sushi."

"... You and your fish, Blake… you and your fish," Weiss sighed, shaking her head and giving Blake a gentle hug in return. "Fine, but we're getting extra Mistrali style fried chicken with it. And tempura… and- oh, which place are we going to? The actual restaurants or the fast food places? Because I want some of those pastries that they only sell in the Mistrali part of Vale."

"We can take our time, honestly. It's not like we don't have a few hours until dinner. Oh- right, I forgot to mention earlier but our match tomorrow is early on. We're going up against Team BRNZ."

"... The one with May Zedong?" Weiss asked, squinting a little while Winter just stood there silently, watching Weiss interact with her girlfriend with a small smile on her face. "The team with May Zedong, the sniper that tried to use Ruby's spare stock of ammo while defending Beacon and completely ruined her weapon to the point that she needed a complete rebuild?"

".... It's uh. At least Professor Branwen said she could use some of the spare gun parts Ruby made?" Blake shrugged, wincing a little bit as she looked away. "I mean… we might get to see Ruby and May trying to do a sniper duel? If the arena allows it?"

"And if it doesn't?"

"... I mean, Team BRNZ doesn't have anything we can't deal with. Brawnz and Roy are up close fighters, Nolan's got what's essentially a cattle prod , and May…." Blake winced a little and looked away. "... I genuinely feel bad for May actually."

"Not the others?" Weiss asked dryly. 

"Most of Team BRNZ is a bunch of dicks with an obsession with fashion more than they care about actually being good, and May is only not the leader because she has anxiety," Blake explained, crossing her arms and huffing. She paused, then, and cleared her throat before explaining further. "She and I are part of a book club chat. We uh… didn't get a lot done in the aftermath of the Cataclysm."

"I would imagine not," Weiss murmured, nodding along with Blake's explanation. "I can't imagine that Brawnz, Roy, and Nolan are that bad if they made it to the tournament, though…"

"They're not, but they're not good either. Even Team CRDL is better than they are after spending all that time in… uh, whatever school they were in. Point is… One of us should probably fight May instead of Ruby, because it's probably going to turn into Ruby stealing May's gun and field stripping it to get a look at the internals," Blake deadpanned.

"... Oh gods, Ruby would do that… we have to stop her from doing that to that poor girl," Weiss muttered, shuddering a little bit at the idea of going full weapon junkie in the middle of a televised fight. "It'd be a disaster."

"Hey, at least we can probably just get them clumped up in a group and have Yang punch 'em outta the arena," Blake suggested, raising a finger as if counting off ideas on her hand. "... Then again… Penny could do that too…?"

"... We'll get there when we get there. And speaking of getting there-"

"Yeah yeah, we can go now, c'mon- Yang let me borrow the keys to Bumblebee," Blake grinned, holding up a set of keys and charms that looked frankly hazardous to handle, but was only really safe because Bumblebee's key compartment was actually a hidden area on the main body of the bike, and not a normal keyslot. "And since I'm the only one of us two who knows how to drive a bike…"

"... Please don't drive us off the cliff like Yang keeps threatening to," Weiss sighed, shaking her head and waving over her shoulder to Winter, who nodded and motioned her to leave at her discretion. "I know she keeps saying it will be fun but… I don't think it would be."

"... No, I'm just gonna drive way over the speed limit."

"... Fair enough."